7.4.07

A "battente" (beater) leaves the spot where a "cardillo" (a cork with 13 shards of glass) was used to inflict wounds on his legs on his way to meet the procession which carries a wooden statue portraying the Virgin Mary weeping over the body of Jesus, in the town of Nocera Terinese, in southern Italy, Saturday, April 7, 2007. In this rite, probably dating back to the Middle Ages, the beater, who has paid for his sins on his way to meet the procession, after kneeling in front of the statue of the weeping Mary, can finally return home.